On a grassy knoll near the muddy banks of the Mersey, opposite a cement factory, The Stone Roses held a huge outdoor gig. Spike Island was rammed full of 27,000 people excitedly waiting for the big Stone Roses moment. It marked the beginning of the 1990s, a celebration of all things Madchester and the moment where The Stone Roses moved directly into the media spotlight. It was a hugely ambitious gig for an Indie band, perhaps a bit too ambitious technically. On the day there were problems with the sound rig – the sound was literally being ‘blown away’ and the audience were struggling to hear the band properly. It didn’t stop the event becoming legendary.
Spike Island, Halton Borough, Widnes, England, a birthplace of the British chemical industry, is a reclaimed toxic waste site. The island is in the Mersey Estuary, a Ramsar Convention site.
Its maze of abandoned chemical factories, rail lines, canal and industrial dockage, and industrial pollution, which had declined into a rust belt toxic wilderness, was reclaimed as woodland, wetlands and green space between 1975 and 1982. A surviving warehouse is now the home of the Catalyst Museum, the only science museum in the UK solely devoted to chemistry.

Background
The first massive gig the Roses ever played, and some would say their best. 4,000 people packed into the Empress Ballroom, which was usually used for press conferences and trade fairs, and danced the night away, after the band’s crew had kicked open the doors, prompting a massive rush in. The crowd got seriously overheated, and John, Mani and Reni threw ice pops into the crowd when they came on stage. During the day, Blackpool was flooded with people wearing flares and Reni hats, enjoying a day out, which they continued in the Ballroom, bringing beachballs in to chuck around. Ian later on said that Blackpool was the moment he knew the band had made it.